


Fellow Travelers

by junko



Series: 'Tails' of Zabimaru [14]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, M/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-17
Updated: 2012-08-17
Packaged: 2017-11-12 08:31:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/488813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/pseuds/junko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain Kyouraku discovers what Renji wears to bed and a shopping spree ensues.  Unfortunately, a lot of people, including Renji, take things the wrong way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fellow Travelers

Kyōraku was giving Renji a funny look. The captain had agreed to meet him at the front gates of Academy for their weekend excursion to the Kyōraku family estate. Renji was there at the proscribed time, just as the sun was starting to set. He leaned against the outer wall, all ready to go, but, for some reason, Kyōraku was scratching the hairs on his chin curiously and looking Renji up and down. 

Finally, the captain asked, “But, son, where are your things?”

“What things?”

“Your going-away overnight bag,” Kyōraku said, hefting the one on his shoulder as if as an example. “Surely you’ll want a change of clothes, a nightgown, toiletries….”

“Oh. I don’t really have any of that,” Renji explained. He pulled at the folds of his Academy uniform, “Even this is borrowed, technically. When I need to freshen up, I dump what I’ve got at the laundry and go to the quartermaster. For other stuff, I just use whatever’s available in the common room.”

“But… Mr. Renji, what do you sleep in?”

Renji felt a blush color his nose. The word came out sounding like a question, “Nothing…?”

“Oh, my!” Even though the autumn air was cool, Kyōraku removed his hat and fanned his face for a moment. He pounded his chest a little as though Renji had given him a heart attack or like he'd swallowed something wrong. Then, he cleared his throat and started to laugh, though it was a little more sputtering and nervous than usual. “Well, well, that will never do at my brother’s estate. I’m afraid we’re going to have to stop on the road and purchase a dressing gown, evening wear of some sort. Maybe something floral,” he suggested with a nod, as though approving of the image in his head, “and pink.”

_Pink?_

“I really can’t accept any more gifts,” Renji said, raising his hands. Gods only knew how much something like that would cost. Did he mean a kimono? Silk? Was Renji even allowed to wear silk outside of Academy? “Seriously, sir, you’ve done far too much for me already.”

“No, I’m afraid I have to insist on this one, Mr. Renji. My brother’s servants will be utterly scandalized by your _au natural _sleeping preference. I already have somewhat of a dubious reputation with my family and elsewhere, I can’t be followed by rumors of a naked houseguest, especially an Academy cadet. People will talk, and not in a good way. More importantly, my partner will have a conniption fit of epic proportions.”__

“I could wear the shitagi,” Renji grumbled. “You told me the uniform would be fine.”

“Not to sleep in, dear boy! For dinner wear,” Kyōraku shook his head, dismissing that thought with a wave of his hand. He put the straw hat back on his head. “I’m sorry, but this matter is settled. The next stop is a tailor.”

#

The robe Kyōraku bought Renji was actually white.

But it did have pink cherry blossoms on it. Truthfully, Renji found it kind of attractive, and at least it was made of cotton and cheap enough that Renji had a chance of paying him back at some point in his life. 

Of course, Kyōraku then insisted on buying Renji a bag to carry it in and a few other toiletries from adjacent shops. They were just leaving a shop that specialized in men’s ‘intimate attire.’ Renji had a blush on his cheeks like a beacon. “Look, this is getting ridiculous, sir. You made your case for the robe, but I don’t need this other junk.”

“Don’t need a toothbrush of your own?” Kyōraku sounded almost hurt. “I’m sorry, Mr. Renji, but I still find this rather startling. After two years at school and summer work for which you presumably earned something, how is it that you’ve accumulated nothing at all, no possessions of any kind? Not even an extra pair of socks or underwear? Do you spend none of your money?”

Of course, Renji had spent plenty of money of beer and tattoos. What could he say? He didn’t usually even bother with underwear. Renji rubbed the back of his neck, as he reluctantly followed Kyōraku into another store, this one full of a surprising array of socks. 

“Thing is, I can get all the standard issue through the quartermaster, sir,” Renji said, trying to suppress the growing frustrated whine in his voice. “Why buy my own? Now I’m going to have write my name on everything and keep track of it all when it goes through the launderer.”

“An extra pair of underwear shouldn’t be a luxury, Mr. Renji.”

Renji peeked over Kyōraku’s shoulder at the amount on the shopkeeper’s tally and he actually cringed and had to look away when Kyōraku paid for it. “Jeez, sir. All this-- it’s way too much. You know I share a room with other people from the outer districts of the Rukongai, right? I appreciate what you’re doing here, but having a lot stuff to look after is still a bit of a liability, know what I’m saying?”

The captain’s dark, bushy eyebrows rose, as he took the bag from the shopkeeper with a ‘thanks.’ As they headed out the door and back to the road, Kyōraku tucked their newest purchase into Renji’s brand-new pack and asked, “Are you implying your colleagues will steal your underwear?”

Underwear, socks, shoes, obi, sheets, pillows, pens, paper…. Anything left in the room was fair game. “Yeah, but not always on purpose.”

Renji glanced behind them, glad they were back out on the street, in a crowd. Renji had already noticed a number of the shopkeepers giving the pair of them a curious look, like they were trying to figure out his relationship with Kyōraku. From the pursed lips and disapproving shakes of their heads, everyone, especially the tailor, clearly figured Renji was being _bought_ in some way with all these trinkets and gifts.

And he was starting worry they might be right. The whole conversation about what Renji didn’t wear to bed had been an awkward start. He did not want to be talking about underwear with this man any more, especially while the captain was buying Renji all these things.

He should never have agreed to this. He was deep in debt to this guy already. It was all going to come due one way or another, Renji was sure of it.

“Not on purpose?” Kyōraku repeated with an amused twinkle in his eyes. “How do you steal something accidentally?”

Sliding his hands into the pockets of his hakama, Renji frowned at the way the lanterns illuminated the gravel road. He shrugged, “Look, sir, some of the new kids--they were on the streets only a few months ago. It’s a habit more than anything else.”

They’d started down the main road again. The autumn had only just begun, but the air was noticeably cooler, especially in the faded light. Soon they left the little town behind and were the only travelers. Crickets sang loudly in the fields and tall grasses. Kyōraku glanced at Renji occasionally as they walked, the moonlight making the captain’s straw hat a silver crescent. 

It was clear the captain wanted to ask something.

“I’ve broken that particular compulsion, if that’s what you’re wondering, sir,” Renji said gruffly. Though sometimes, despite himself, he still horded food. His body hadn’t entirely adjusted, despite the consistent regularity of three squares a day for the last two years. His Inuzuri stomach was still such a stray that sometimes it tried to convince him that he was still hungry, still desperate and aching for more.

“No, no,” Kyōraku said with a gentle little laugh, “I wasn’t worried about that. I was just wondering if you’d considered upgrading your accommodations. Surely, after your internship you’ve saved enough to afford regular room and board. You know, get a roommate. As in, just one--singular.”

Renji gave Kyōraku a toothy grin, “What? And give up my status in the common room? I’m onii-san now. I’ve got a horde of adoring first years who’ve never met anyone from further out than they’re from, much less an upperclassman. Besides, sir,” he added with a more serious shake of his head, “I promised that I’d stay until graduation or until someone could replace me, you know, as a role-model. I told myself it has to be sixty or lower. Got no takers so far.”

“There’ve been no cadets from districts lower than sixty?”

“No, sir,” Renji said. “Hard enough to find them from any part of the Rukongai, except the inner ring, of course. Most in the common room are from well over forty. There’s only a select few elite in the ‘shoeless’ club.”

Kyōraku cocked an eyebrow. “Shoeless club?”

“Means you came to Academy without shoes, sir,” Renji said. “That’s anyone coming up from fifty or below. Right now, with Rukia gone, that’s just me and one other, and he’s from fifty-two.”

Kyōraku scratched at his chin again. “Indeed? There’s that much of a gap?”

“Well, yeah, think about it, sir,” Renji said with a self-deprecating shrug. “School isn’t exactly what you’d call a big priority for folks from my neck of the woods. Rukia would never have even thought of it, if we hadn’t seen a shinigami for ourselves. I mean, that was pretty lucky, especially when you consider the odds.”

“Perhaps it was fate,” Kyōraku said thoughtfully.

Renji nodded, but he didn’t put much stock in fate. Fate seemed more like a chain –something that tied a soul to a particular outcome. He preferred to think a person could make their own destiny.

#

“Renji Abarai, meet my elder brother, the Kyōraku clan head, Katsumi.”

Renji bowed very low. In fact, with his head pressed almost to his knees, he took the time to catch his breath. The estate was the most stunning place he’d ever seen in his entire life. The scale of even this simple greeting room made Renji feel small, insignificant and… dusty. 

Katsumi nodded absently in Renji’s direction. Instead, he said to his brother, “No Jūshirō this time? Is he well?”

Renji could see the familial resemblance in Katsumi’s dark hair that hung nearly as long as Captain Kyōraku’s. Katsumi, however, wore his more formally, with part of it bound back in an oicho, a topknot in the style of a gingko leaf. Amber gems glittered at the combs that held his hair from his face. Two long strips of brown curls draped over his ears, while majority of the rest flowed down his back in a great wave. Katsumi’s features were more delicate than the captain’s, though he had the same large, friendly-seeming brown eyes.

He wore his status in a sepia-colored kimono bearing the Kyōraku family crest in amber threads on the shoulders of his sleeves. Beside him, the captain looked like a lumbering splash of garish color.

“Jūshirō is well, thank you,” Kyōraku said with a happy laugh. “I’m sure he’d send his regrets.”

Katsumi looked concerned suddenly. His eyes skipped over to Renji for a moment, before returning to his brother, “You’re ‘sure he would’? Are you saying didn’t invite him?”

“As my letter explained, this is a somewhat impromptu visit. Jūshirō is in the middle of training in a new enlistee. Mr. Renji and I were hoping to—“

“Is everything alright between you and Jūshirō? You haven’t had a falling out, I pray?” the brother interrupted anxiously. He took his brother’s arm and led him a few steps away, leaving Renji staring awkwardly at the paneled yonkyoku byōbu screen painted with a scene of a mating pair of tigers snarling at a wind dragon in the clouds. He could hear Katsumi’s whispered protests, “I’m sorry, Shunsui, but this is unacceptable. I won’t play host to your indiscretions.”

Kyōraku blustered, “Dear gods, Katsumi, what on earth makes you think—?”

“One look at him, that’s what,” the brother hissed, while Renji continued to pretend not to hear a word of their argument. “You forget we used to prowl together, my brother. I know your type when I see it.”

Great. There was a bit of information Renji could have done without. He tried to admire the fine artistry of the byōbu, but inwardly his mind churned. The captain’s type? The only thing he could think that he had in common with Captain Ukitake was his gender. 

“Katsumi,” Kyōraku’s tone was reproachful and disappointed, “You honestly think I’m so easily swayed from Jūshirō’s side? After all this time?”

“Aren’t you? Rumors reach even this far from the Seireitei, you know. And, really, Shunsui, did you think a simple costume would fool me? This is no student. Do you think I wouldn’t notice the tattoos on his face? And that all his things are new? Do you take me for such a fool that I wouldn’t see a Rukongai kagema under Academy blues?”

“Whoa, what? What did you just say?” Renji roared, spinning around to face the brothers. Dog comments he might suffer, but no one called him a _whore_. It didn’t help that Renji had been feeling exactly like one for the last several hours. “Oi, if you can say that behind my back, you can say it to my face!”

“Temper, temper, Mr. Renji,” Kyōraku said with a sad sigh. “Katsumi is the head of my clan, and, just like Mr. Byakuya, he seems to think that rank grants him the privilege to be an ass. Ah, my, my,” he sighed again. “It seems the time it takes to outstay my welcome grows shorter and shorter with each visit. Come, Mr. Renji, there’s an inn just down the road.”

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently, in my universe, all the heads of noble clans are jerks. I may have to find a way to redeem Kyouraku's brother. Though to be fair to Katsumi, I got a similar reaction from my family when I brought home my tattooed colllege girlfriend (except for the name calling, of course. Let's just say they liked the previous one better, and kept asking after THAT one, much like in this scene.)
> 
> ~~Also, Renji's robe from the Manga/Anime... my brain remembers the flowers. Was it pink? Or white with pink flowers? I'd love to get it right, if someone can help. I couldn't find a good picture of it easily.~~
> 
> UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who responded about Renji's robe. Now I just have to say: OMG, how much is Kubo-sensei shipping Byakuya/Renji if, when we first see Renji in casual wear, it's wearing a robe with F**KING CHERRY BLOSSOMS ON IT??!! Are we supposed to ask ourselves just whose bedroom he came out of, huh? Huh???!! And Rukia teases him about his EYEBROW TATS, she should be yelling, "Aarrgh! Cherry blossoms! Why are you wearing cherry blossoms????" (Okay, other than the fact it's a fairly common motif, given it's the national symbol of Japan, but *COME ON.*)


End file.
